People En Español Names Yalitza Aparicio One Of ‘Los 50 Más Bellos’ And We’re Crying Along With Kate del Castillo

Just because award season is over, that is no reason to think we have seen the last of the incomparable Yalitza Aparicio. The Academy Award-nominee is taking a break from acting (she is looking at scripts), but that does not mean she’s stepping away from the spotlight, in fact, it is shining on her more than ever. After being named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential people, Aparicio is attaining even more stellar titles that are perfectly suited for her.

Looking like a boss in a white suit, Aparicio stood alongside her acting peers including Kate del Castillo, Eiza Gonález, Gina Rodriguez, and Natti Natasha. The magazine hits newsstands on May 2.

Aparicio and Del Castillo seemed to have bonded during the shoot.

Instagram/@nato_natuka

“With these incredible women and grand fighters, it was marvelous meeting them,” Aparicio said on Instagram. Del Castillo followed the compliment by responding, “it was such a pleasure sharing this with all of you. And Yali, now I know why everyone is in love with you.”

If movie producers are reading this, can you please make a movie featuring these two ladies? We can tell their connection would shine on the movie screen.

Here’s one more for the road.

Yup, they need to be in a movie together.

The decision to feature Aparicio on the cover of People Espanol is particularly special considering what she has gone through this year.

@yalitzaapariciomtz / Instagram

As excitement around the Academy Awards built the actress recieved unwarranted racism from her community of actors in Mexico.

To summarize Goyri’s racist and vulgar language, he said that an Indian who only says “yes ma’am and no ma’am” is not worthy of a Best Actress award.

The actor quickly apologized for his offensive use of words and issued a video apology to Aparicio.

“It was never my intent to offend anyone. I apologize to Yalitza, who deserves [the Oscar nomination] and much more,” the 60-year-old said on Instagram. “For me, it is an honor to see a Mexican be nominated for an Oscar.”

Mexican actress Gabriela Platas said that while she didn’t agree with Goyri’s opinion, she defended his freedom of expression about the topic.

Instagram/@gabyplatas

Platas is facing backlash for defending Goyri’s words, whether she agrees with him or not.

“I never defended the expressions,” Platas tweeted. “I said that I think Cuarón’s casting elections are great, and that I do NOT agree with what Goyri said, but that he is in his right to express what he wants in his private environment.”

Aparicio responded to Goyri’s offensive remarks and said she is proud of who she is and where she is from.

@yalitzaapariciomtz / Instagram

“I am proud to be an Oaxacan indigenous woman, and it saddens me that there are people who do not know the correct meaning of words,” Aparicio said in a statement to The Guardian.

“Roma” director, Alfonso Cuarón, also came to the defense of Aparicio this week by saying that Goyri’s words should be a broader discussion as to why people, particularly in Mexico, have those feelings, and also why the media perpetuates stereotypes.

This was not the first time Aparicio has been the target of racist comments from other white Mexican actresses.

Last week, Mexican actresses Dolores Heredia, Blanca Guerra, Regina Orozco, and Vanessa Bauche were rumored to have been part of a chat in which they wanted to ban Aparicio from being nominated for Best Actress in the Ariel Awards in Mexico, which is the equivalent to the Oscars. Most of them have since come forward to deny the accusation.

Yalitza Aparicio Made Her Debut At NYFW And She Shined Like The Star That She Is Next To The Fashion World’s Elite

Indigenous Mexican actress Yalitza Aparicio marked her New York Fashion Week debut at a Michael Kors show this week. The 25-year-old was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress last year when she made another debut. It was Aparicio’s first time acting when she was cast in Alfonso Cuaron’s 2018 drama Roma. Aparicio has staked her claim as one of Hollywood’s most talented leading ladies.

She is the first Latinx actress to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 14 years, making her the second Mexican woman to do so, and the first Indigenous American woman to get a nom. Aparicio is Mixtec and Trique. Raised by a single mother who worked as a maid, Aparicio has no formal acting training. She has a degree in early childhood education and was pursuing another in pre-school education when she was cast in Roma.

Aparicio’s ascent comes at a time when Latinx and indigenous representation are sorely lacking and much needed in media.

Yalitza Aparicio attends Michael Kors Show at NYFW.

Credit: MichaelKhors / Instagram

Yalitza Aparicio made her New York Fashion Week debut at Michael Kors’ Brooklyn Navy Yard show. Other celebrities in attendance included Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Sutton Foster, Lucy Hale, Emily Ratajkowski, Mafalda, Olympia of Greece, and Ella Hunt to name a few.

“I will see how it actually is because all I know is what you see online,” Aparicio told Women’s Wear Daily of seeing the clothes up close for the first time.

The 25-year-old Roma star is still adjusting to life after awards season. Her breakout performance quickly ushered her into the Hollywood stratosphere, and while Aparicio is in talks for some new roles, she is focused on adjusting and humanitarian work.

“I was trying to assimilate all that had happened,” she said. “[People] wanted to meet me and ask questions about the film and how it had been filmed all over the world; it was all sort of a big dream.”

Aparicio sits front row.

Credit: Oaxaca3373 / Instagram

In fashion, it’s considered an honor to be sitting in the front row of a runway show. It’s why snaps of Vogue’s elusive editor Anna Wintour sitting poised with her signature sunglasses have become iconic. Aparicio was not denied a seat at the table, as she was sitting in between the notable leading ladies Sutton Foster, Kate Hudson, and Nicole Kidman.

“I really didn’t think it would happen this soon, but fortunately, through this experience, I’ve been able to really take on the next step,” she told E.T. of her unexpected and exponential rise to success.

“I really learned a lot over this past year, but the most important thing is that at its core, my essence, I’m still the same person,” she continued. “It’s just a matter of adapting everything I’ve learned that really works for me.”

Native American appropriation still runs rampant in fashion.

Man. Wish I could be happy about this but this is perpetuating indigenous culture. The name “Sauvage” ring a bell? Savage.. ..This is a colab with Johnny Depp and Dior by the way. @Diorpic.twitter.com/42eEgHIGfq

Just last week French fashion brand Dior pulled an advertisement following accusations of cultural appropriation. The ad was for the fragrance “Sauvage,” whose spokesperson is Johnny Depp, and featured indigenous people of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota performing the Fancy War Dance. Indigenous people were offended.

Who are the real sauvages?

“Using Indigenous people and our culture for your new perfume aesthetic and feeling the need to name it “Sauvage” is a completely bad take. Do better @Dior,” an indigenous person wrote.

Sauvage is the French word for “savage” an offense term used to describe indigenous people by white colonizers, and one that is still used today to dehumanize indigenous people. This is well-known information, even the Disney animated film Pocahontas, which is a lazy retelling of history at best, features a song called “Savages” sung by the colonizers.

Indigenous people have long faced discrimination and erasure.

“To describe a Indigenous Person as Sauvage…. Is not cool.. Period. I am not a Savage..we are described in the Declaration of Independence as “Savages”…. So no honor no respect. Coming from a 100 percent indigenous two-spirit… Not cool Johnny,” said one Twitter user.

Others have pointed out that indigenous people are described as “savages” in the Declaration of Independence as a means to deny their rights. Many indigenous Canadians were especially upset. Canada has a large population of French-Canadians as well as a relatively larger indigenous population, thus the word sauvage, in its most derogatory form, is a constant presence in the lives of indigenous Canadians.

Aparicio’s presence in NYFW, and in Hollywood, is all the more important as indigenous and Latinx voices need to be heard and represented.

There Is Going To Be A Remake Of Disney’s ‘Hercules’ And It Is Going To Have An All Black Cast

There’s a new live-action stage version of Disney’s 1997 animated film “Hercules”at the Public Theater in New York City — and Hercules is Black as hell

In 1997, San Francisco Gate’s Peter Sack described the film as, “The great old Greek is turned into a ’90s-style athlete who gets endorsements, sandals named after him and a chance to stand tall among nymphs and muses.”

Sound familiar to you? Lest we not forget this was the same era that Michael Jordan did Space Jam and Shaquille O’Neal did Kazaam. The original animated film took inspiration from major athletes of the time and thus, it inevitably heavily references Black and hood ’90s culture. If you watch it now the sneakers, the gospel music, the humor, it probably seems so obvious.

One might wonder with all these references to the Black popular culture of the ’90s, why didn’t the creators just make Hercules Black? Well, they finally have.

The story of Hercules.

While most of us were forced to read and re-read Hercules in secondary school, not everyone may know the story. Hercules is the son of the king and queen of the gods, Zeus and Hera. When a prophecy foretells that he will eventually defeat the god of the underworld, Hades, Hercules is kidnapped as an infant. Unable to kill him, Hades is able to take his immortality away but not his strength. The baby Hercules is raised by a mortal couple. At 18 he figures out his real origins and is determined to become a hero so that he can return to Mount Olympus with the gods.

The difference between the stage musical and the film is that Disney has finally chosen to embrace their story’s Blackness. Rather than simply coding their narrative as one with allusions to Black culture, they’ve put that Blackness at the forefront and center. That’s what we call growth! Everybody loves Black culture, it’s time we start loving the people who make it.

Danielle C. Belton of The Root describes the original as having flirted with African-American culture, while this new version embraces a multicultural cast.

“While the film Hercules only flirted with African-American music and culture—the muses who were the “Greek chorus” throughout the film were patterned after classic, Motown-style Black ‘50s girl groups,” she writes. “This version of ancient Greece and the Greco-Roman gods features quite a few Black, Asian and Latinx people, including Jelani Alladin as the titular teenaged Hercules, and, of course—all five of the doo-wopping muses are…sistas with voices.”

How Hercules gave nods to Black culture.

Not to mention that we didn't have NAMED black characters in a Disney movie after Sunflower in Fantasia (1940) until the Muses in Hercules. LOOK AT THIS DIFFERENCE. pic.twitter.com/ule9Qib4c6

Hercules is something of a hood icon. It was the first time many kids probably saw Black women portrayed as the muses and Greek chorus. This gaggle of doo-wopping muses sang the funky, soulful Hercules theme. There were also pivotal aspects of hood culture, some of it is even social commentary. Hercules’s character is parallel to the superstar basketball players of the ’90s, their rabid fans, and endorsement deals. The creators, Ron Clements and John Musker, even referred to Hercules as the Michael Jordan of his time.

I really just had to have the "Please stop getting mad about black Kristoff, black Ariel, black Hercules, etc." "BuT iT's NoT hOw ThE oRiGInAl StOrY wAs." Argument with my roommates. It's fiction. Who cares as long as they're the best fit for the role? My roommates apparently.

In the movie, we see a young Hercules’ as he rises to fame for being a demi-God with some serious strength. When the hero-worship begins, he snags a sweet endorsement deal — but these aren’t Nike Jordans — they’re fresh to death Hercules sandals called Air-Hercs. When the villain Hades sees that one of his minions is rocking the Hercules sandals his response is simple and iconic: what are those?The phrase has now become a popular meme on Black Twitter going so far as being referenced in the “Black Panther” movie. The hero even has his own version of a Gatorade sponsorship, the drink is called “Herculade.”

A Latinx Megara embraces feminism.

Need to take a moment to talk about how great the Hercules soundtrack is. Disney did a great job giving the soundtrack for Hercules a Black Gospel twist. The Muses and Meg did THAT! pic.twitter.com/wSs02c58Wo

Unlike other Disney women of the era, Megara was never waiting to be saved. She was sarcastic, witty, and pretty unimpressed with Hercules’ attempts to holler at her. Krysa Rodriguez’ Megara puts feminism at the forefront — again we see subtle codes made explicit.

“In a new song, a pants-clad Meg imagines a world without men, envisioning it as a utopia where she could do as she pleases. A dopey, lovestruck Hercules, seeking to demonstrate his feminist credentials, replies clumsily, ‘My mom’s a woman,’” writes Adrienne Westenfeld for Esquire.

Diversity is always an improvement. We live in a multicultural world, there is never anything wrong with reflecting that in the stories we tell. After all, it’s the stories we tell that teach us who we are and who we will become. For Hercules that is learning the truth about his traumatic past to create a better future — for America, well, it’s no different.

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